The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940

304 Pages·1994·28.09 MB·English

by  Walter Benjamin

,
falter Benjamin was born in Berlin in 1892. He studied philosophy Contents
ld theology in Berlin and Switzerland, and lived in various places in
urope including several years in Paris. He was a regular contributor to
lagazines and literary sections of newspapers. His numerous works
dude The Origin afGerman Tragedy, "The Task of the Translator,"
ld "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In
HO, while fleeing the Gestapo at the Franco-Spanish border, he took
is own life. Note on Sources Vll
he University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 Translators' Note
IX
he University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
1994 by The University of Chicago
II I rights reserved. Published 1994 Foreword, by Gershom Scholem Xl
rinted in the United States of America
3 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 94 1 2 3 4 5 Benjamin the Letter Writer, by Theodor W. Adorno XVll
;BN: 0-226-04237-5 (cloth)
riginally published in Germany in 1978 as a two-volume edition under
THE LETTERS 3
e titles Briefe 1, 1910-1928 and Briefe 2, 1929-1940, © Suhrkamp
erlag, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
Index of Correspondents 641
brary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
:njamin, Walter, 1892-1940. General Index 645
[Correspondence. English]
The correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940/ edited and
annotated by Gershom Scholem and Theodor W. Adorno ;
translated by Manfred R. Jacobson and Evelyn M. Jacobson.
p. cm.
"Originally published in Germany in 1978 as a two-volume edition
under the titles Briefe 1, 1910-1928 and Briefe 2,1929-1940,
copyright Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1966"-T.p. verso.
Includes index.
1. Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940-Correspondence. 2. Authors,
German-20th century-Correspondence. I. Scholem, Gershom
Gerhard, 1897- . II. Adorno, Theodor W., 1903-1969. III.
Title.
PT2603.E455Z48 1994
838' .91209-dc20
[B] 93-41005
CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
I
=Juirements of the American National Standard for
formation Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed
brary Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
46 • 1913 1913 • 47
23. To Herbert Belmore way of seeing things is located midway between a mystic's contemplation
Freiburg and an American's penetrating gaze.
July 30, 1913 You know it is impossible for me to feel bad while reading books like
(unfortunately!) this. But I feel even better than that. I have finally truly grasped that there
Dear Herbert, is sun. You have received a postcard with an old master's depiction of an
This is the last letter you will receive from Freiburg. I am leaving on afternoon in Badenweiler. On the return trip I came across some unwel
Friday at 9 A.M.; I will then spend another eight days in Freudenstadt come acquaintances. A chatty student (Rudolf Goldfeld) with a certain
and finally go on a trip with my mother and probably my aunt, Mrs. Miss Seligson who was most disagreeably unladylike. After all, it is a fact
Josephy.l Our first stop will probably be San Martino in the Tyrol. But that very few young girls can be wittily uninhibited. Kathe Miillerheim
I am also seriously thinking of Venice as the final stop of the trip even if is the best example.
I will not get to meet you there. By the way, let me congratulate you on Monday evening I had a ten o'clock appointment with Heinle on the
having Erich Katz as a traveling companion. On our trip to Italy, I discov Loretto. Heinle wanted to bring another gentleman along. We sat to
ered that he is the least moody and most amiable companion imaginable. gether at the top in semidarkness-Heinle, I, and the gentleman-so that
So as things stand now, in August we will still be quite far apart but-if I could not see him properly at all. Rockets marking the finale of a chil
I should have the time-I would like to go to Dresden 'with Willi and you dren's festival rose from the other hillside into the skies. I primarily
in September. spoke with Heinle-the gentleman mostly listened. (You know that Dr.
I have been daring in planning my reading for the trip. Do you know, Wyneken is getting the information on Breslau3 from the FrankfUrter
I will begin reading the Critique ofP ure Reason [Kritik derreinen Vernunit] Zeitungj thus he is going there.) I discussed with Heinle how to organize
with commentaries as soon as possible: thus I have taken Kant and Riehl some kind of testimonial to Wyneken in Breslau. It cannot be anything
along. I also want to read Der Tunnel-after all-Kurt Pinthus recom at all public; it is time that people for once approach him as something
mended it recently in the Zeitschrift for Biicherfreunde and, by the way, as other than the founder of Wickersdorf. It has to be a personal act. Some
critically as you did. I have also surrounded myself with a few Insel books; evening at a small gathering (at most twelve people-but I couldn't even
you will be glad to know that Stendhal's Ramerinnen is among them; come up with twelve who were very close to him) seems good to me.
because it was under this alluring title that I discovered the impossible During the evening, someone would simply speak about him, primarily
stories which remain unread among my Reclam books at home. After stressing that, because of him, we had had the good fortune of growing
that I mean to attempt Der Sturm. up conscious of the presence of a leader in our lifetime.
I have done a lot of reading recently. For one thing, the earlier issues In any case, the need to do something should also be obvious to you.
of the Logos, especially Rickert's essay "Zur Logik der Zahl,,,2 considered And just as obvious is the error made by a public for whom he would
by his students here to be his most brilliant essay, and the one that has always be the unemployed founder of Wickersdorf.
to be read. Guy de Maupassant's Woman's Pastime [Notre Coeur]. A novel After that we still walked in the woods and spoke about goodness.
containing such inconceivably beautiful sentences, I would have liked to Yesterday Heinle came by and brought me two poems, not his own.
memorize some. Somewhere he writes, "And she, the forlorn, poor, I read them and said: Surely only [Ernst] BlaB4 could write that. It was
errant being who had no place to rest but was serene because she was not BlaB, but Miiller. We established that the poems meant a lot to us,
young ..." (!) I can remember this one right now. The story is very that they also go much further than BlaB in terms of their metrical free
simple and narrated almost abstractly. Its psychology sees to the very core dom (you'll get to see them in Berlin). Miiller, however, was the gentle
of people and, in spite of that, touches them as if with the hand of a man with whom we had been yesterday. Both of his poems dealt with
kindly old physician. The name Maupassant only now has meaning for Gladys who lives in Paris (he rejects the rest of his work and approves of
me, and I am looking forward to everything else of his I will be reading. only two poems). He is, however, the son of the man who edits the
I have Hesse's collection of novellas, Diesseits, in my room. He knows Freibu'0er Boten, the ultramontane newspaper. He spends the day sitting
how to do many things, even if they may all boil down to just this one in the editor's office writing articles-he quit school two years before he
thing: to depict landscape without endowing it with a living soul, and could take qualifying exams for the university. Heinle telephoned him
nonetheless to make it the focus rather than just decoration. His particular yesterday; we wanted to get together with him again. And this evening
1913 • 49
48 • 1913
24. To Carla Seligson
we will. It is a real shame that we did not find the third person to comple
Freudenstadt
ment the two of us until now. We do not need to make an effort to get
August 4, 1913
along with him; he does not talk a lot, never indulges in idle chatter, and
Dear Miss Seligson,
truly has a radiantly intense feeling for art-also for ideas. Yesterday we
The semester is over now. I am spending a few days with my parents,
climbed around the woods from 10 to 12:30 and talked about original
brother, and sister, and then I am going with my mother to the Tyrol
sin-we came up with some important ideas-and about dread. I was of
until the beginning of September-maybe the weather will be tolerable
the opinion that a dread of nature is the test of a genuine feeling for
for our trip to Venice. Saying good-bye to Freiburg-to this semester
nature. A person who can feel no dread in the face of nature will have no
turned out to be difficult for me after all. This is something I can't say as
idea of how to begin to treat nature. The "idyll" does not represent any
easily about any other recent year. My window was there, the one you
kind of pleasure in nature-but rather a pseudo-artistic feeling for nature.
have heard about, looking out on the poplar and the children at play; a
The semester is concluding with the fortissimo of warm active days-I
window in front of which you feel mature and experienced, even when
am' sorry that I have to start traveling.
Thanks for your parcel. I like your sketchesS a lot-I am going to show you have not yet accomplished anything. Thus it poses a danger, but it
is still so precious to me that I plan to live there again should I go back
them to Heinle today. I had forgotten to do so earlier. The sketch of the
to Freiburg. Mr. Heinle was there, and I am sure we became friends
poor black schoolboy is even better than the David; the bizarre landscape
overnight. Yesterday evening I read the poems he wrote this semester,
is magnificent. But the David is the shrewder choice (for a stamp), also
and here, with some distance between us, I find them almost twice as
"more positive" (nonsense!). The David may be selected because he has
beautiful. Finally, life there also suddenly turned beautiful and summery
a hard, sleepy expression that is very beautiful. I mediate between Heinle
with the arrival of sunny weather at the end of the semester. The last four
and all of you, just as I mediate between all of you and Heinle. Heinle
evenings we (Heinle and I) were constantly out together past midnight,
still feels that your essay lacks rhythm. I would express it in these terms:
mostly in the woods. A young man of my age, whom we got to know
what is missing for me is the assured, almost classical, way of "establish
by chance in the last days of the semester, was also always along. We told
ing" something like an apostrophizing, i.e. exhortatory, tone meant for
ourselves that he was the third person who would complement the two
the individual. What you say seems to be intended more for adults than
of us. Not a student. He quit school two years before he could take
for young people. The essay is very good (for what I have said above
university qualifYing exams; he works in the editorial office of his father,
deals only with practical considerations). For the reasons implied above,
who publishes Freiburg's ultramontane newspaper.
however, I do not know whether it might not be better for you to choose
Consequently, this semester ended on a pleasant note-I am as sure as
a more neutral title that more emphatically stresses the programmatic
I am about nothing else that, while I do not fully grasp it, the semester
aspect. For example: Concerning (On) Themes and Ideas of Der Anfang.
will bear fruit in years to come, somewhat like my Paris trip may in the
Heinle still needs the essay for propaganda purposes; he is sending it
coming months.
off tomorrow or the day after. That is to say that he is making an effort
You may have heard about the pedagogical student congress that will
to establish a Discussion Hall here, but with little hope of success. Vaca
take place in Breslau on October 7. I recently learned that I will be giving
tion has come-as well as the members of the Wanderviigel, individualists,
a talk there; besides me, [Siegfried] Bernfeld, head of the Academic Com
who are most accessible to him.
Many regards. ~ttee for School Reform in Vienna, will also give a talk. A third speaker
Yours, Walter l~ a Mr. Mann, who is a member of an opposition group. Both orienta
nons represented by the student movement, the one associated with
1. Friederike Josephy, one of WB's father's sisters and the relative who was closest to Wyneken and the other with Prof. Stern (my cousin),l will confront each
WB, committed suicide in 1916.
other for the first time at this congress. In Breslau we will also for the
2. In Logos 2, no. la (1911).
first time get an overview of our troops (as I believe they can be called),
3. The reference is to the first Student-Pedagogical Assembly in Breslau on October 6
and 7,1913. our wider circle of friends. Before the congress meets, another three issues
4. Ernst Blm (1890-1939), who, among other things, was editor of the A1l1onauten, of the Anfang will appear; you may put your trust in them, to the extent
which is mentioned later. that I am familiar with the contributions.
5. Belmore was a student of interior design at the Berlin School of Commercial Art.
As difficult as it is, I must now respond to what you wrote about the
He drew and painted on the side.
50 • 1913 1913 • 51
form of the new youthfulness. I thought about it until I trusted myself individuals want to free ourselves from our loneliness among people, we
to be able to express with relative clarity what I have always thought. transmit our solitude to the many who were still unfamiliar with it. And
What I have to~ ~_n~loE~I?~rt of _our_~ork in th<:.~~!ct sense-i~ we ourselves become familiar with a new kind ofloneliness: that of a very
: ~robably J2hilosophy of history, but what you wrote surely demonstrates small community in the presence of its idea. (This sounds more arrogant
•. its relationship to our most intimate thoughts. than it is. For in reality there are and will r<:!llain in_almost ey~!Y~Eso~ .
Will what we want take away anything at all from the young person, two kinds of loneliness.)
the individual? (Will we-this question is even more serious-be giving Your question and your objection are basically the most serious things
him anything at all?) that can be raised against Der Anfang-and not only against Der Anfang. 2
But above all: will a new youthfulness, of the kind we want, make the And even before this journal appeared I often had misgivings about it. I
individual less lonely? I do not see how we can answer no to this question, am writing about this for the first time in this letter, and consequently in
if it is construed in all seriousness. Indeed, I believe that we will not suffer a way that is entirely incomplete and fragmentary. People have expressed
the distress of loneliness (which is certainly a mysterious moon, if not a this objection in more abstract terms and said (or better, thought): Der
sun) in what we are trying to achieve; we want to destroy loneliness, Anfang deprives young people of their obvious lack of inhibition, deprives
eliminate it. them of what is natural to them-in short, what one might perhaps call
{
Thus we can say-nevertheless, we may still assert something com innocence. This would be true if young people had innocence now. But
pletely different, something that is apparently its opposite. Because, let's ! youth is beyond good and evil, and this condition, which is permissible 1\.\-",ra.:
just have a look around in our own time. Somewhere Nietzsche says: "My l for animals, always leads a person into sin. This may be the greatest
writings are supposed to be so difficult. I was supposed to think that obstacle that the youth of today must overcome: the assessment of them
everybody in distress understands me. But where are those who are in as animal, i.e. as unrepentant innocent, as that which is instinctually good.
distress?" I believe we may ask, Where are those who are lonely nowadays? For people, however, this kind of unaware youth (we see this every day)
Only an idea and community in the idea can lead them to that, to loneli matures into an indolent manhood. It is true that youth must lose its
ness. I believe it is true that only a person who has made the idea his own innocence (animallike innocence) in order to become guilty. Knowledge,
(irrelevant "which" idea) can be lonely; I believe that such a person must the self-awareness of a calling, is always guilt. It can be expiated only
be lonely. I believe that only in community and, indeed, in the most through the most active, most fervent, and blind fulfillment of duty. I
fervent community 9f belie~J:'§' c3!L.!_per~ont>£truly lonely: a londiness ' ?elie:e that the following does not express it t?O abstractly: all knowledg~~
in which his "I" revolts against the idea, in order to come to its senses. Do J§_ _ ggj!b at least all knowledge of good or evil-the Bible says the same
(
you know Rilke's "Jeremiah," where this idea is wonderfully expressed? I thing-but all action is innocence.
would not want to call loneliness the relationship of the ideal person to There are some lines in Goethe's Divan whose profundity I still can't
his fellow man. Although, to be sure, even this can be a form of loneliness fathom:
(but this form is lost in the ideal community). Rather, the most profound
For real life is action's eternal innocence,
form of loneliness is that of the ideal person in relationship to the idea,
which proves itself in that it harms no one but itself. 3
which destroys what is human about him. And we can only expect this
loneliness, the more profound type, from a perfect community. However, the innocent person cannot do good, and the guilty one
But whatever we may think about loneliness, today neither the one must.
kind nor the other exists. I believe that only the greatest people will ever You really have to excuse me for answering your simple question with
totally achieve that "other" loneliness. (Of course if they, like the mystics, a metaphysical discourse. But maybe these thoughts will appear to be just
became totally one with the transcendental, they have already lost it, along as simple and obvious to you as they do to me. For any person, innocence
with the "I".) The conditions for loneliness among people, with which has to be earned anew every day and as ~'!!:ijJ1rent.kind of innocenfe. Just
so few are familiar nowadays, have yet to be created. These conditions as the forms of loneliness always surrender to and redeem each other-in
are "sentience of the idea" and "sentience of the I," and the one is as order to become ever more profound. The loneliness of the animal is
unfamiliar to our time as the other. redeemed by the gregariousness of the human being. (This is a third kind
I must summarize what I have said about loneliness: in that we as of loneliness about which I have not yet written: I call it "physiological."
52 • 1913 1913 • 53
Strindberg's characters are tormented by it.) The person who is lonely in Al~ough it h~s been typed in final form, I ,:ill ~end you my "Dia
gregariousness establishes society. And only a few people are still lonely lo~e another ~e,. b:cause I have already unfaIrly mundated you with
even in a community? philosophy and If It IS mcomprehensible, please blame that on me and
not yourself
I cannot close without telling you about an entirely different idea with
Have a wonderful vacation!
which I will answer your question about the punctilious certainty and
great facileness of the coming generation of young people. Please read Yours, Walter Benjamin
my essay4 in the July issue of the Freie Schulgemeinde-I will enclose it.
1. Wi!liam Stem (1871-1938), a well-known psychologist.
In this essay, I try to explain that there is no certainty that a moral educa 2. S~ligson.had.aske~ whether modem youth might not be a bit too firmly and surely
tion will take, because the pure will that does good for the sake of good rooted. 'We will IlllSS bemg alone" (letter from Seligson, July 20, 1913).
cannot be apprehended with the means the educator has available. 3. _From "Der Deutsche dankt."
4. "Der Moralunterricht" [Moral instruction].
I believe that we must always be prepared for the fact that no one now
5. "Dialog tiber Religion."
or in the future will be influenced and vanquished in his soul, the place
where he is free, by our will. We do not have any guarantee for this; we
also should not want one-because good only issues from freedom. In
25. To Ernst Schoen
the final analysis, every good deed is only the symbol of the freedom of the
individual who accomplished it. Deeds, lectures, journals do not change San Martino di Castrozza
anyone's will, only a person's behavior, insight, etc. (In the moral realm, August 30, 1913
Dear Mr. Schon [sic],
however, this is completely irrelevant.) Der Anfang is only a symbol.
Everything it is beyond that which is internally effective is to be understood . In Spitteler's Der Olympische Friihling, there is the very lovely story
WIt? a small garden called "After All, Why Not," and the street leading
as grace, as something incomprehensible. It would be quite conceivable
(and it is surely the case) that what we want will gradually come to pass to It ~~ed "Could I, Would I"; there is no access to this garden.
without the spiritual young people whom we wanted having appeared in ThIS IS the mythology I would like to contribute to our summertime
their individual manifestations. This has always been the case in history: con:esponden~~, and eve~g else would be consigned to a metaphysics
its moral progress was the result of the free act of only a few individuals. of sIle~ce, wmmg, and lazmess. I was very surprised today when the very
The community of the many became the super- and extra-human symbol first thing I saw was. the p~cture of~rafoi on your postcard. I am happy
to confirm that the pICture IS true to life, because I arrived in Trafoi myself
of a newly fulfilled morality. While the old morality was just as much a
about two weeks ago and stayed there for a week, i.e. I am traveling with
symbolic form, constructed by a few free individuals. Were it otherwise,
"new" moralities could never have arisen; there are "new" moralities only my m00-er. and an aunt ~ough the southern Tyrol. Presumably this is
for those who are immoral and instinctive. Whereas those who are spiri ~appenmg m order to brmg some order into my life and to stabilize a
tual wanted something that was exactly the same, forever moditying it so s~-~ontI: rer~od of inactivity, May to September. Nevertheless, little of
this maCtlVIty IS voluntary-I experienced much of "fate."
that the others who sleep unawares accommodated themselves to that
symbolic community. (Everything else was a single act of grace in its Above all, .a time ~f isolation in Freiburg, which was almost amusing
particulars.) The morality of the community remains independent of the and fro~ whICh I ultlmately gained a good friend and many bad weeks.
morality of its members, in spite of their immorality. Thus-from the Then. this s~er's centenary celebrations of Napoleon, which I weath
ered m the solitude of the Swiss Jura. I fled to Paris over Pentecost: this
perspective of the individual-it is only a symbol. But in those who feel
was the most beautiful experience, mainly restaurants, the Louvre, and
the symbolic, impractical value of the community, who founded a commu
nity, "as if" the individual were moral-only in these creators of commu the Boulevard.
nities did the moral idea become real; they were free. What an "as if" of . In the meantime, maybe you have had a look at Der Anfang. If so, you
WIll have seen that "Ardor" is very much in need of some order in his
knowle~j~, is ~~<!J:~~~0Iutepf~c!!9n.
enthusiasm and in the logic of his thinking.
Now please keep in mind that I am far from being finished with this
Since even you must be burdened at some point with something
line of thought, and that it appeared necessary to me only in order to
presumably?-you can be sure that you will have something to tell me
liberate our idea from everything utopian yet triumph over the most brutal
when you look me up at 23 Delbriick Street. I hope this will be soon. I
aspect of reality.
54 • 1913 1913 • 55
will be back home on the twelfth at the latest. If for no other reason, look even the Discussion Hall, will be merely a "movement." They will have
me up to return Imago. 1 committed themselves and will no longer see the spirit where it manifests
Yours, Walter Benjamin itself as freer and more abstract.
1
This constantly reverberating feeling for the abstractness of pure spirit
1. By Spitteler. i I would like to call youth. For then (if we do not turn ourselves into
nothing more than workers in a movement), if we keep our gaze free to
26. To Carla Seligson see the spirit wherever it may be, we will be the ones who actualize it.
Berlin-Grunewald Almost everybody forgets that they themsel~ the _pla~.F"h9:~~~Riril
September 15, 1913 actualizes itself However, because they have made themselves inflexible,
i
My dear friend, turned themselves into the pillars of a building instead. of illto vessels or- </ IJ"
You will let me call you that, won't you? I have to address you this bowls that can rec~_and,shelter an ever-p~er-~ontent:'they-desPalr~of
way after what you wrote me yesterday and even before that. It would the actualization we_ ~l wiWrt,,~l!r~s!Y£~. This soul is the eternally actual
also be tactless if those of us who want to represent a new kind of youth izing soul. Every person, every soul that is born, can produce the new
were to speak to each other differently from how we actually feel. reality. We feel it in ourselves and we want to project it from ourselves.
After I read your letter this morning, I walked to where there aren't I recently inquired about Hueber's address at his publishersl in order
any more houses but only fenced-off vacant lots. For the first time I to offer my services for his cause. I found out that everything is in a sad
thought seriously about what you had asked me: How is this possible? state of affairs. So whatever you do, do not read the 'Wirkung des
Because formerly my delight in understanding Hueber had been so great Aufrufes" with sympathy, but with defiance!
that I did not even consider the majority who do not hear what he has I would like to talk to you about all of this. Please let me know by
to say. For a long time I was unable to think of anything because I was phone or letter whether you can visit me Thursday or Saturday afternoon.
completely consumed by the joy of having found the first person who If you prefer, we can go for a walk.
understands this book the same way I do. None of my friends has yet Thank you-for what? For your delight in the book and for having
read it. But then I finally discovered the simple answer: those of us who written me. Sincere regards.
understand Hueber feel our youth completely only in the presence of his Yours, Walter Benjamin
ideas-the others, who feel nothing, are not young. They have simply
1. Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig.
never been young. They took pleasure in their youth only when it was
J
, over, just a memory. They did not know the great joy of its presence,
which we are now feeling and which I sensed in your words. I truly
believe that this is the reason why things are even worse than Hueber 27. To Carla Seligson
r thinks they are. But in"~yg:y"_individual who is born,.!19. . matter where, Berlin-Grunewald
il._:l!1d turg~"2!:!~~2.I:>~Y.Q!!mh._there is, not "improvement," but eerfection September 25, 1913
1f rom tile: .Y~!Y §!~!rt This is the goal that Hueber so messianically feels is My dear friend,
I near. Today I felt the awesome truth of Christ's words: Behold, the king You do not have to externalize anything other than what is manifested
I
dom of God is not of this world, but within us. I would like to read with in substantial deeds. And, of course, you have always done this, more
I
you Plato's dialogue on love, where this is as beautifully expressed and than any of us. For which of us would have had the will you had? If I
J with such profound insight as probably I1o~else. ____. _ _ _ put almost too much of our thoughts into words, I basically do not
This morning I gave this some more thought: to be young does not externalize anything of myself. Rather, I am saying what I hope at some
i
mean so much serving the spirit as awaiting it. To see it in every person time to be able to conceive philosophically. Therefore I actually internalize
, and in the most remote thought. This is the most important thing: we ) it and then use it to build myself up.
must not commit ourselves to one specific idea. For us, the concept of Do not think, however, that I did not understand you. I am saying
youth culture should simply be illumination that draws even the most only that you have already accomplished infinitely more in your lifetime
remote spirit to its light. For many people, however, even Wyneken, than any of us. And we abstract nothing from our being. Each of us
56 • 1913
1913 • 57
internalizes the spiritual in his life differently: you by studying, I with
but that he can satisfY. But fulfillment is something too serene and divine
words. It is not supposed to be easy for any of us. The words should be for it to issue from anything other than a burning wind. Yesterday I said
least easy.
to Heinle, each of us has faith but everything depends on how we believe
[ ...]
in our faith. I am thinking (not in a socialist, but in some other sense) of
Let me send you my regards with my unspoken greetings.
the multitude who are excluded and of the spirit that is in league with
Yours, Walter Benjamin
those who sleep and not with those who are brothers. Heinle told me
something your sister1 said: "fraternity, almost again [s t] one's better judg
ment." You will remember that in my policy speech I already stated, "No
28. To Carla Seligman
friendship between brothers and comrades, but rather a friendship among
November 17, 1913 friends who are strangers."
Dear Carla,
While writing, I realize that maybe this can be said only in person-but
I am writing you from the reading room of the Royal Library, which you will get my meaning.
"is reserved for serious professional work," and I have erected a barrier
The movements proceed with their internecine sttuggles. Yesterday
of books around myself. My class has just been canceled and I can there
Heinle and I saw the type of youth movement that paves the way for
fore write you immediately. Yesterday evening Heinle and I ran into each sttuggles of the kind we are engaged in. I still do not know of any word
other on the way to the Bellevue train station. We spoke about trivialities. to describe my relationship to Heinle, but in the meantime I will take
All at once he said, "There is actually a lot I have to say to you." I pure delight in the pure struggle. I still do not know much about him,
thereupon asked him to do so immediately because it was high time. And
but I will give him some thought. For the goal remains: to push Heinle
since he really wanted to say something to me, I wanted to hear it and out of the movement and to leave the rest to the spirit.
went up to his place at his request.
Yesterday you were unchanged when I thanked you. But we may also
At first we went round and round about what had happened and tried
give thanks for the truth in these ideas. Indeed, we are obliged to give
to explain things, etc. But very soon we realized what was at issue and thanks for it alone.
put it into words: that it has become very ~cult for both of us t? Yours, Walter Benjamin
part. But I realized one thing that was the most llllportant aspect of thIS
conversation: he knew precisely what he had done, or better, there was L Rika (Erika) Seligson, with whom Heinle committed suicide after the outbreak of
war,
no longer anything for him "to know" here. He understood our opposi
tion to be just as uncompromising and inevitable as I had expected. He
confronted me in the name of love and I countered with the symbol. You
will understand the simplicity and abundance of the relationship, which
29. To Carla Seligson
contains both for us. A moment arrived when we both confessed to con
fronting fate head-on; we said to each other, each of us could be in the [Berlin-Grunewald]
other's shoes. [November 23, 1913]
Dear Carla,
\, I can barely bring myself to write you about this conversation, but
'~i ~\"(";">' ,,) through it we both overcame the sweetest temptation. He overcame the Everything IS now completely straightforward again. You want to
resign. 1
;' temptation of enmity and offered me renewed friendship or at least a
fraternal relationship. I overcame, in that I rejected what I-as you will The past few weeks had tired me out. I had finally become active in
understand-could not accept. the ~ovement again, but I was exhausted after having spoken at the
At times I had thought that, of all the people we know, we, Heinle meetmg on Tuesday evening with such a lack of restraint, as if uncon
and I, understand each other best. This way of putting it is not quite sciously, drastically sure of my subject and myself. It was a success, and I
accurate. But this is: in spite of each of us being the other, it is inevitable was disappointed and depressed. On Wednesday I came across as being
that each must remain ttue to his own spirit. at a loss when we were speaking about your sister. The next morning I
read:
I once again recognized the inevitability of the idea, which places me in
opposition to Heinle. I want the fulfillment that one can only anticipate no feeling is the most remote.
58 • 1914
1914 • 59
When you talked to me in the afternoon, the word was fulfilled. I have and will be mailed at the s~e time as this ?ne. I hope she will accept it
gone farther; if, after these chaotic days, you could only see everything as gracefully. My mother conSIders the letter "Impossible."
straightforwardly as I do as a result of what you said. . So much seems not to be working out for you. And yet-isn't it really
An intimate, as well as the most remote, feeling allows me to perceive slffiple? You have to hope that Barbizon will finally declare some holidays,
things in this way, and I have never written you, my friend, as uninhibit some days O! repentance, and the only thing we want from him as well;
edly as I do today. that he. of his own accord will acknowledge, and thus expiate, the guilt
You are not resigning because of your mother, are you? If that were ?e has mcurred ?e~ause of what happened in the Discussion Hall (even
the only reason, a solution could be found. You made the decision entirely if he personally IS mnocent ten times over). From that moment on he
on your own. All the words probably tired you out-and you feel all will affirm his position in the Discussion Hall. From then on, we will all
alone whenever things go beyond words. turn to him as freely as you do. 1
We must all bear the burden of words. I believe that work helps allevi . Guttmarm will probably also stay away from the next Discussion Hall
ate this burden, as does the ~~2iJriendship. If the whole situation does not change after Guttmarm's and Heinle'~
But you also find yourself alone and no longer comprehend the cer "explanations" have been sent out. This is supposed to happen on Friday.
tainty of others. You believe unresistingly what people tell you. I am You would not want to turn to him before he has become peaceable and
writing you in response to that. pm:e enough to earn your trust. You have a duty to the "cowardice" about
whic? you speak. You are confusing shyness with cowardice. I would
The rain does not fall for itself, the sun does not shine for itself,
~ertainly not b~ so quic~ t<? call the rejection of Guttmarm shyness, but
you too are created for others, and not for yourself. (Angelus
~ good conSCIence I will JustifY your rejection of him with this word.
Silesius)
F~rst let Guttmarm earn. ~our trust? and until that happens perhaps you
None of us could proceed so happily and seriously if we were not will allow me to be a spmtual medium between you and him.
aware that friends are watching. Perhaps they are too distant and weak Because of the ~tress I am under, I hope you will forgive me if this
to help us, but they believe in us. In view of this conviction, however, let:ter does not entirely manage to address what you have in mind. For
there is no resigning as long as one believes. One gives holy orders to a this reason, however, I ask you to continue to turn to me with your
friend as to a priest who is unable to deconsecrate himself. Consequently, demands. To that extent, I take responsibility for Guttmarm before you
before the friend refuses to excommunicate him, the friend is part of the and the Discussion Hall. I told you that yesterday. It has gotten late I
friendship. am tired. Good night. '
I believe in you without reservation.
. Walter Benjamin
Whether you face up to the issue or avoid us, your youth will struggle P.S. Not for a smgle second did I consider you to be "devoid of charac-
among us, unmoved by the torment of words or family strife. One day ter." I.am a ~omrade of Guttmarm and Barbizon too. I hope Barbizon
you will join your youth. makes It pOSSIble for me to remain his comrade.
It sends you the most sincere regards! [On the en:elope] P.S. I'm t~rmented by the feeling that my somewhat
[no signature] overtaxed br~ may be preventmg me from telling you everything in the
best way pOSSIble; I may again have a few words with you about this on
1. From the Free Smdents or the Young People's Discussion Hall. Saturday.
1: Many serious disputes had developed in the Berlin Discussion Hall between Georg
30. To Carla Seligson BarblWn and a group whose spokesmen were Heinle and Simon Guttmann. Disagreements
about w~at the Anf~ng was supposed to look like and efforts to change the editorial board
March 26, 1914
w~re behind .these disputes. WB, who had just been elected president of the Free Smdents,
Dear Carla, trIed to me<f!ate although. he was secretly on Heinle's and Guttmann's side. Many reports
To begin with: I hear you are not well. I hope you will soon be free and other things were wnrten and the excitement went on for months. Copies have been
from pain and, above all, that you will be able and allowed to go with us preserved of a detailed explanation wrirten by Barbiwn on March 12, 1914, "An den
!;<arne~ad.en ,;Valter Benjantin" [To the comrades of Walter Benjamin], and of Barbiwn's
to Kohlhasenbriick after the Discussion Hall on Saturday. In order to
descnpnon of the events between February and April 1914. The result was a schism in
obtain permission for you to go, a letter has been written to your mother, the Discussion Hall to which a number of the following lerters refer.
60 • 1914 1914 • 61
31. To Herbert Belmore the conversation I had with him on Wednesday. He is ardently and defi
Evening: May 6 [1914] antly clinging to his relationship to Genia.5 So I said: do whatever you
Grunewald want and think is the right thing to do. If, however, you refuse to accept
Dear Herbert, advice (what he does is constantly play the coquette with those who give
It seems to be easier to write from London to Berlin than from Berlin him advice-and this term is not too harsh), then finally take responsibility
to London.1 I have already attempted the latter at least once without for your actions. I told him not to speak with anyone about his relationship
success. For here in Berlin it is impossible to take the measure of my days, to Genia. He promised. That evening, and before I had spoken like this
and on the other hand, if anyone wanted to write from within their core to him, he read me part of the scriptum on the vocation. Who could deny
everything would sound too rhapsodic. But as much as Berlin is dimin~ that it contains ideas? But I do not know what honor you wish to bestow
ished. by your departure for London, it still remains Berlin, and nothing on it by calling it Jewish. No-and I demonstrated this to Franz-it is
remaInS but to write from within its abundance. What can be said about conceived entirely without courage, without ultimate commitment to its
the Free Students' inaugural evening is that it took place the night before subject, with concepts taken out of an entirely alien context, the "Diary";6
yesterday; that there were far fewer students than friends in attendance moreover, it seems to me that the style is not compelling and the text
in the lecture hall; that the evening, however-because it was in fact evinces a lot of confusion instead of profundity. He retracted it, but I am
:umost t~tally removed from the student body-was singularly beautiful: not completely sure that he is not still working on it. No, Herbert, I am
In that fnends who had left in search of new recruits unexpectedly found not at all completely sure of Franz. I have always defended him against
themselves reunited in a strange place. Nevertheless, I know now that my Dora. But even now, in the days since my last conversation with him,
talk moved not a few people who did not know about us before thiS.2 which I wanted to make the first and last we had about him and Genia
The floor was opened to discussion, but with the observation that we in every respect, he said things that embody his strange ambiguity. I
would be happy to dispense with it. Consequently nobody raised a hand. accidentally learned that he is meeting Leni Wieruswwski, while avoiding
Of course, everything just went by some of those in attendance. You will the Discussion Hall and wanting to "withdraw" from everything. You
get t~ re~d the lecture sometime later on. Dora brought me roses because know that Dora has greater doubts about his irmermost being than those
my gIrlfnend was not in Berlin. It is true that flowers have never made of us who, on the contrary, affirm it have experienced thus far. But if he
me as happy as these, which Dora3 had just brought from Grete.4 When goes on playing games-and here I am not thinking so much of myself,
I think that I was able to have only a quick word with you about Dora although I have spoken plainly with him-than of Dora, who wants to
and Max before you left and that, at that time, I had seen them only once! extend to him the noblest help he could expect. He nonetheless wrote her
Even now, after having spent Thursday evening at their place, I do not a letter expressing his gratitude, which was quite insipid. Ifhe continues to
kno",: what I should add; I talked; afterward Max read poems and played play games here and explains the situation to his own advantage, if he
the plano; then we looked at pictures; and Dora spoke to me about Franz, continues to foster uncertainty and indecisiveness, even then there will be
after we had a conversation later on Monday night. There were others at people who will help him, teach him, and you may be his teacher-but
~e table. Dora had proposed the wonderful topic "Help" for the Discus I will stop at the limit of my ability, and in this case that also means at
s~on Hall, ~d Franz intimidated her with his timorous and trivial objec the limit of my will. To be sure, this final stage of my willingness is one
nons. Until we so clearly perceived the pure essence of helping, that we I had never reached before. Mter a while you will find out whether it is
understood: we can talk about help, with anybody. Even after such a necessary.
profound conversation or affectionate gathering, I am unable to tell you The Art Division tours begin on Friday. [Simon] Guttmann is leading
any more about the two than I did the last time. I am unable to tell you them and we will go first to Gurlitt's to view the Schmidt-Rottluff pictures
anything other than what I wrote Grete: that few people have ever seemed under discussion. Guttmann recently said to me: this morning I received
to me to be as good and yet to have an equally sure and accurate eye for a letter from Herbert B., which did much more than simply please me.
the cl~ity or op.acity ~f human deeds and the doer. As you well know, And Heinle once told me something similar. There was a Discussion Hall
Franz IS developIng thIS kind of perception. On the very evening of your on Saturday. About attitude. Dora may have written you about it. It was
departure, . both of them spoke with me in passing and told me a lot of flawed, like all of them, but not depressing.
thIngs I did not know before. Franz may then have written you about I can hardly believe how long you have been gone. I have a lot to tell
62 .. 1914 1914 • 63
I
you: That I visited [Martin] Buber in a room that was sumptuously fur with me. 1 Between sessions, I want to review it with my sister. Of course,
nished in Oriental style. He will come sometime when the discussion of it will be terribly slow going. But perhaps this most modest of beginnings
the Free Students deals with a dialogue out of his Daniel. Now I have to will be the basis on which I can later make progress more independently.
read it. Write me if you have it here,? so that I can borrow it. That classes We began on Wednesday. That evening Simon Guttmann was also at
are not very stimulating, and we are learning only gothically; but that the their place. He brought Dora some wonderful, reddish-black, lustrous
Ja hr der Seele is ever more beautiful; that Guttmann wants to read Spinoza tulips. You know that only this year have I found within myself the
(' ,Q ~ ~ith sOf!1e 12eo~s the ultimate and surest basis of understanding among capacity to notice flowers and take delight in them. I discovered this
;) thef!1; and that I am planning to send Grete a still-life that I have been suddenly when presented with myriad opportunities to do so. Yesterday,
mulling over for a week. It depicts one carton of Cordon Rouge, very' for example, Lisa2 visited me and brought me lilies of the valley. Dora
long, magnificent cigarettes that I recently discovered at a party; one will have written you about the recent evening, how at first Max and
colored Japanese wood carving (there are good ones at Keller and Reiner Guttmann were in the study for an hour while I was talking to Dora in
for 2 marks, even if they cannot be mistaken for Hokusai); birds and her room about the Discussion Hall and about Dr. Wyneken, objective
grasses; and a-book, book, charming, beautiful, good, light and small, spirit, and religion. At this time, the only thing I am at all sure of is that
exotic and familiar, illustrated and in color, expensive and cheap. A book Dora has written you about things here. If I were not convinced of this,
that is so like-there is certainly only one: an ideal book: please tell me but had to think that Franz and Hertha Levin were the only ones writing
if you know of one. One will occur to you when I tell you that one day you, I would consider it necessary to sit continuously at my desk and tell
this paper, on which I am now saying adieu, hoping you will find a good you that everything is happening more clearly, simply, and calmly than
position, and hoping for a letter from you-came from Munich. you must suspect. At least, that it could be happening that way. And even
Yours, Walter Dora is not as calm as I would like her to be. She has slept very little for
many a night now. But she always comes to feel again what is fundamen
1. Belmore had been in England since April 1914. He was a British citizen.
tally right and simple, and therefore I know that we are of one mind,
2. This was WB's inaugural address as president of the Free Students in Berlin, part of
although I rarely have the time to write (letters Grete and I wrote each
which has been published in Dar Leben der Studenten.
3. Dora Pollack, nee Kellner, WB's future wife. At that time she was married to Max other, in which we passed on your regards, crossed in the mail). Thus
Pollack, who died in 1960. She was an active participant in the Discussion Hall. you will also know about Barbizon's last memorandum, which you will
4. Grete Radt, to whom WB was engaged at the time. receive in a week, when I can spare it, so that you can read it until you
5. Belmore's sister-in-law. She was a Russian from St. Petersburg.
have had your fill. In it he first provides a "description" written on April
6. A part ofWB'sMetaphysik der Jugend [Metaphysics of youth], copies of which were
20th. After that, in a summary occasioned by Dr. Wyneken's letter and
circulated among his friends. Scholem's copy has been preserved.
7. Buber's Daniel: Gespriiche von der Verwirklichung [Daniel: Dialogues on Realization] written on May 12th, after he had once again amassed all the evidence,
appeared in 1913. The Free Students held a debate between Buber and WB on the book he drops his suspicion "from lack of evidence." He is ready to engage in
on June 23, 1914. any new task with anyone who takes a stand based on Dr. Wyneken's
letter.3 Before that, in the paragraph preceding the summary, he assures
the reader that he bears me no grudge, that my intentions have been
32. To Herbert Belmore focused on just one dimension. He now understands this: "namely, in the
April [should be May] 15, 1914 most four-dimensional way." Journalism still allows him to avoid feelings
Grunewald and thought. Yesterday an unsigned invitation to the Discussion Hall
Dear Herbert, arrived, once again demanding in sterile and insolent words "purity of
You could just now have seen me engaged in an endeavor of a kind in sensual and spiritual instincts" and expecting everyone in the Discussion
which you have never seen me engaged in all the years we have known Hall to be determined to put his best foot fotward. It closes with the
each other. I was sitting at the piano, without music, by the way, which following beautiful sentence instead of with a signature: ''Whoever is
I still cannot read, and was playing charming thirds and octaves to myself. there on Saturday will proclaim that he has made this his own cause."
You see, the most beautiful thing the summer here could provide me is Herbert, I am very reluctant to write you about all of this because it is
actually going to happen: Max and Dora will go through the Halm book such a confused mess and, through the medium of a letter, you will not